Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal | March 8, 2021 | HartfordBusiness.com By Keith Griffin Special to the Hartford Business Journal T here's an old cliché about loving what you do for a living and never having to "work" again. Ann Collette has embodied that belief by combining her mastery and love of martial arts with a keen business sense to develop her after- hours life into a second career. By day, Collette, 54, is vice president of strategy and business development for Wallingford- based Masonicare, which provides assisted- and independent-living and memory care services. On nights and weekends, she is a world-champion practitioner of Tang Soo Do — a Korean martial art. She also owns a martial arts dojo with her husband Don and son Jeremy in Litchfield. It makes for a long day. She leaves Masonicare, where she oversees marketing and communications at 5 p.m., goes to a barn by 6 p.m. (she's a former competitive equestrian), rides for an hour, and then heads to the family-run studio, Litchfield Tang Se Doo. Family dinner happens around 9 p.m. On weekends she drives to New York to train with an internationally-ranked teacher. "It's a lot of commitment," she said. Collette got into martial arts almost by accident. She was taking her then six-year-old son for lessons. Seeing her son struggle to learn a move, Collette coached him. His instructors encouraged her to sign up. Soon she was training every day. Fast forward from watching Tang Soo Do through a window to being watched as a winner on the international stage. She is also now a fourth-degree black belt, which makes her a master. Competing was addictive. "I'm a goal-setter," said Collette, who exudes energy even during a Zoom interview. "I would grind harder and work harder to improve. It speaks to my personality. I like to dream big. There is a sign at our school that says, 'Set your goals so high they scare you.' Martial arts gives me a platform for that." Collette started competing as an orange belt in 2008. "What it did for me mentally and personally, it was a great forum to grow. You learn more from losing. You learn a lot about yourself," she said. There's also the challenge of competing against people much younger. Collette was around 40 when she started competing. "Coming into it as an adult was different," she said. "I couldn't hide behind my age against younger people. I was able to prove to myself with the right mindset you can accomplish anything." And accomplish she has. She joined a martial arts organization in New York that put her on a national path of competition, and eventually an international path. To earn her three world championships, she traveled once a month around the country competing for over a year. Her championships came from the collective scores of all the events. One thing Collette says she isn't is a natural athlete. "I'm more a hard worker," she said. "Just like in real life, hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work. You can be a talented professional but hard work beats talent. It's about the grind." Martial-arts mindset Collette colors herself fortunate that she's never had to use her weapons and fighting skills in the real world. The closest she's come was when she was relatively new to martial arts. She was walking up the ramp of a parking garage late at night. A group of men followed her. As she approached her car, keys firmly grasped in hand, she spun and "froze" them. It's a martial arts technique that involves a quick lunge and loud yell. It freezes an attacker momentarily. That's all she needed to do to hop in her car and drive off. No punches thrown. No side kicks to the head. Just quick thinking. "It was scary but I caught them by surprise," she recalled. Collette said the martial- arts mindset has helped her professionally. Martial arts training, she said, is about values, virtues and being honorable. "That helped me in various life dimensions," she said. "If you keep your values at the forefront, you'll be successful. When I struggle with something, I reflect to where my martial arts training has taken me and I find the answer." Collette is business-development specialist by day, world-champion Korean martial artist by night ANN COLLETTE Vice President of Strategy and Business Development Masonicare Education: MBA, University of Phoenix Age: 54 Masonicare's Ann Collette is a world-champion practitioner of Tang Soo Do, a Korean martial art. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Off Hours

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